Web3 Talks: Stories & Tips from the Builders

Mac Budkowski

Web3 Talks is a web3 podcast where founders of top crypto projects share the backstage perspective of their work and the lessons they learned along the way. Join 1,500+ web3 founders, devs & operators who subscribe to Web3 Talks. Hosted by Mac Budkowski.

  1. Distribution Advantage: how to set up GTM for your crypto product (without bs)

    23/12/2025

    Distribution Advantage: how to set up GTM for your crypto product (without bs)

    Blog post version: https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/crypto-gtm *** If your crypto product is solid but growth feels slow, this episode gives you the clarity you need. It breaks down how teams like Aave, Uniswap, Polymarket and others actually unlocked their early traction and what you can learn from their playbooks. You will hear the patterns behind channels that work, how to pick a segment that gives you an edge, and why even great products do not spread on their own. If you are building in crypto and want practical guidance instead of vague advice, this is a focused walkthrough of what moves the needle. Listen and make your crypto GTM sharper.

    1 h 13 min

  2. 01/12/2025

    We are back (in a new form)

    Good to be back and happy to chat with you. Learn more and book a slot here: https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/lets-chat

    6 min
  3. #48: Henri Stern, Co-Founder & CEO @ Privy | How they built a tool that brings web2-caliber UX to web3 products

    27/10/2023

    #48: Henri Stern, Co-Founder & CEO @ Privy | How they built a tool that brings web2-caliber UX to web3 products

    Henri is an ex-research scientist at Protocol Labs. He Co-Founded Privy, which provides web3 projects such as Friend.tech, t2 & Shibuya with seamless onboarding & embedded wallets. In this episode, we dive into the early MVPs of Privy, learn how it works under the hood, how they managed to design such as smooth UX & more. *** If you like high-quality crypto content, check out the project I co-founded: kiwinews.xyz *** TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 A few words of intro 01:56: Why Henri started working on Privy 06:02 The early days of Privy 11:37 How have they built their MVP 13:15 Why did they make a pivot despite having an interest in their product 15:41 Which features helped them to tip the scales 22:34 How Privy works under the hood 34:04 Most wallets were built with L1s in mind 37:23 How do embedded wallets work 48:24 What would happen with wallets if Privy went out of business 50:36 How do they acquire their users 53:24 What kind of metrics do they follow 57:59 How does the world look like if Privy fulfilled its mission 1:04:25 Where people can learn more about Privy

    1 h 9 min
  4. #47: Anjali Young, Co-Founder & CCO @ Collab.Land | How they built a community management tool used by over 50,000 communities

    24/08/2023

    #47: Anjali Young, Co-Founder & CCO @ Collab.Land | How they built a community management tool used by over 50,000 communities

    Collab.Land is a tool for managing web3 communities and bridging them to Discord and Telegram. It has already been used by 50k+ communities and 8M+ wallets. Today we’re talking with Anjali Young, Co-Founder & CCO of Collab.Land, who shares their project’s story. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Check kiwinews - a portal with news & content for web3 builders co-founded by Mac: https://kiwinews.xyz/ Reach out to Mac if you want to reach European devs: mac at web3talks.xyz *** TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Teaser about Collab.Land's app marketplace 00:56 Intro 02:41 Abridge's first product, pivots & Collab.Land as a hackathon idea 06:48 Early days of Collab.Land during the COVID pandemic 12:07 How did they "sell" Collab.Land to communities 15:50 Cooperation with Axie Infinity 17:54 How they transitioned from a crypto-native tool to a mass-market tool 28:27 How they designed the marketplace and what kind of Collab.Land apps are already out there 35:51 What's their plan if Farcaster or Lens get more popular 40:07 Why they created their token, how they designed its airdrop and what's the utility 49:47 Biggest surprises when building Collab.Land 57:27 Where people can learn more about Collab.Land

    1 h 1 min
  5. #46: Tim Boeckmann, Co-Founder & CEO @ Mailchain | How they built a privacy-first web3 e-mail protocol that lets you communicate between different blockchains

    01/05/2023

    #46: Tim Boeckmann, Co-Founder & CEO @ Mailchain | How they built a privacy-first web3 e-mail protocol that lets you communicate between different blockchains

    Mailchain is basically a web3 email. It provides a web app that lets you send your emails as if you used Gmail or Hotmail. But you send your emails via your wallet, ENS, Lens profile, and other identities you may use. Thanks to that and end-to-end encryption, your emails are 100% private. Today we’re talking with Tim Boeckmann, Co-Founder & CEO of Mailchain, who shares their project’s story. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/ *** TIMESTAMPS: 1:46 Origins of Mailchain 6:01 Why they didn’t decide to put emails on chain 7:56 How Mailchain works 11:51 How the first versions of Mailchain looked like 14:56 How they acquired their first users across NFT artists and collectors? 19:09 How is Mailchain different from XMTP? 25:20 How do they decide which protocols to integrate 28:14 How do they acquire new users now? 30:16 What’s the process for integrating a new partner? 31:59 How do they want to prevent SPAM? 36:02 What’s enclave computing? 38:07 How do they plan to prepare for a scale of billions of users? 41:39 How do they plan to monetize Mailchain? 44:25 What metrics do they follow? 48:28 Why it might be hard to connect your Mailchain email to Gmail 51:08 How would the world of communications look if Mailchain became a household name 56:05 What would Tim build if he wasn’t building Mailchain 1:00:00 Guests ideas

    1 h 3 min
  6. #45: Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ Zora | How they built one of the top NFT platforms used by Coinbase, Gucci, Grimes & thousands of creators

    19/04/2023

    #45: Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ Zora | How they built one of the top NFT platforms used by Coinbase, Gucci, Grimes & thousands of creators

    Zora is one of the most popular web3 tools, used by the biggest creators in the NFT space. What were its early days? How they acquired their first users? How have they organized the Base campaign that generated 700,000+ mints? This and much more in our conversation with Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ Zora. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter:https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/ Mint free episode NFT (pls share your e-mail address so we can let you know when it gets utility!): https://web3talks.xyz/nfts/ *** TIMESTAMPS: 0:58 Who is Dee Goens, why they started building Zora with Jacob and Tyson and what was the first Zora MVP 05:50 What were the hardest trade-offs at an early stage? 7:18 How they solved their dilemma between staying 100% on-chain and taking care of good UX? 10:46 How Zora acquired their first users? 14:42 How many people work at Zora now? 16:10 How they organized their teams? 18:26 Why they decided to work on a marketplace, NounsDAO builder & API? 20:48 How did they set up a Base campaign that generated 700,000+ mints? 26:01 How does their cooperation with brands look? 33:19 Are they planning Zora Academy for NFT creators? 34:27 Why they invested in Zine, which is a pretty old school content tactic? 40:42 How does Zora acquire new collectors and artists? 47:51 How they want the creator’s life to look in 2030? 54:07 Why they changed their fee structure from 5% for primary sales to a flat fee? 56:58 Mint market share, number of collectors, and other metrics Zora follows 58:32 What would Dee build if he wasn’t building Zora? 1:00:00 What would he fix with his web3 magic wand? 1:02:15 Where can people learn more about Zora?

    1 h 6 min
  7. #44: Matt Galligan, Co-Founder & President @ XMTP | Building a web3 native messaging protocol that lets apps integrate DMs, alerts, and announcements

    14/04/2023

    #44: Matt Galligan, Co-Founder & President @ XMTP | Building a web3 native messaging protocol that lets apps integrate DMs, alerts, and announcements

    XMTP is one of the leading web3 messaging protocols. What were the early days of this project? What web3 native features they developed How they built a developer community around their protocol? How did they start handling DMs on Lens? This and much more in our conversation with Matt Galligan, Co-Founder & President @ XMTP. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/ Mint free episode NFT (pls share your e-mail address so we can let you know when it gets utility!): https://web3talks.xyz/nfts/ *** TIMESTAMPS: 01:48 Why they built XMTP 07:45 What were the early days of XMTP? 10:11 How they acquired their first users? 15:00 How XMTP built a partnership with Lenster? 17:07 How does XMTP work? 20:08 What were the hardest tradeoffs in the early days? 25:57 What web3-native features does XMTP have? 32:29 What’s conditional deliverability? 35:29 What are the most interesting apps built on top of XMTP? 40:03 Why most wallets still haven’t integrated DMs? 43:17 Let’s say it’s 2030 - how does web3 messaging look? 48:47 Most important metrics and factors for XMTP? 50:15 How do they track developers’ happiness? 50:52 Biggest surprises when building XMTP? 52:57 What would Matt fix about web3 with his magic wand? 54:24 What would Matt build if he wasn’t building XMTP? 57:07 Where you can learn more about XMTP

    59 min
  8. #43: Julien Genestoux, Founder & CEO @ Unlock Protocol | From the first NFT memberships tool in 2018 to a protocol that’s being used by hundreds of projects for ticketing, token-gating & subscription

    04/04/2023

    #43: Julien Genestoux, Founder & CEO @ Unlock Protocol | From the first NFT memberships tool in 2018 to a protocol that’s being used by hundreds of projects for ticketing, token-gating & subscription

    Julien has been building tools for membership NFTs since 2018, long before the NFT boom. What were the early days of the NFT market? How dogfooding helped them to acquire their first users? How they organized ticketing with Unlock for EthCC? What they've learned from running a DAO program? This and more in our conversation with Julien Genestoux, Founder & CEO @ Unlock Protocol. *** Follow Web3 Talks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/web3talks/ Get 15% off your EpicWeb3 conference tickets by using the WEB3TALKS code:https://www.epicweb3.com/ Mint free episode NFT (pls share your e-mail address so we can let you know when it gets utility!): https://web3talks.xyz/nfts/ *** TIMESTAMPS 0:59 Who is Julien Genestoux and what does Unlock Protocol do 3:21 Julien's experience with RSS & Medium 5:42 Early Unlock MVPs 7:56 How does NFT expiration work? 9:13 How they've been educating people about NFTs since 2018 14:37 How Unlock acquired their first users? 16:32 How they came up with the idea of rebranding NFTs 17:48 What's their process of coming up with UX-friendly solutions like wallet-less airdrops 21:56 Message from OrangeDAO 23:17 How their ticketing partnership with EthCC worked 27:55 Why crypto subscriptions aren't widely adopted yet 32:34 How they transformed part of their operations into a DAO 38:24 What have they learned from running a Grants program 43:02 How they managed their token's value dropping during the bear market 45:58 What kind of metrics do they follow 47:49 How they world of memberships would look like if Unlock succeeded 49:49 Biggest surprises when building Unlock 52:12 What would he build if he wasn't building Unlock 53:42 Where you can learn more about Unlock 53:56 Guests ideas

    55 min
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Web3 Talks is a web3 podcast where founders of top crypto projects share the backstage perspective of their work and the lessons they learned along the way. Join 1,500+ web3 founders, devs & operators who subscribe to Web3 Talks. Hosted by Mac Budkowski.

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